The Child of a Problem

And the ticking time bomb

by T. Sabaratnam

A reporter asked Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe in New Delhi on Friday, whether a dead Prabhakaran could be a major concern for Sri Lanka. His reply was: He (Prabhakaran) is the child of a problem and, as long as the problem stays, there will be someone else to take up the issue.

In his latest article ‘The Tigers- A ticking time bomb’, Dayan Jayatilleke observes: Velupillai Prabhakaran is about to be defeated, but he has left a time bomb hidden in plain sight, which must be defused, if he is not to wreak a posthumous revenge.

Ranil Wickremesinghe, a political realist, looked at the problem that created Prabhakaran, while Dayan Jayatilleke, a political analyst, who shares the penetrating analytical skill his father Mervyn de Silva mastered, peers at the wider question of the impact Prabhakaran would leave, dead or alive.

The problem that created Prabhakaran is the sense of discrimination Tamil people suffer. It started with the question of obtaining equal share of power within government. The Tamils felt that the Sinhalese were trying to grab State power for themselves. That bred the ‘fifty-fifty’ campaign.

Since independence, the fear of Sinhalese domination grew stronger: citizenship of the Indian Tamils of recent origin, State-aided Sinhala colonisation of Tamil areas, and finally, the enactment of the Sinhala Only Act.

S.J.V. Chelvanayagam, whom Sri Lankan Tamils call Thanthai Chelva, meaning ‘Father of the Tamil Nation’, foresaw that, the solution to the problem lies in obtaining self-government for the Tamil majority in the Northern and  Eastern Provinces, and started campaigning for it.

His non-violent agitation started on June 5, 1956, the day the Sinhala Only Act was debated in Parliament, with the Galle Face satyagraha. Groups of Sinhala extremists attacked them. These events started the process of non-violent agitations and violence.

As the non-violent agitation against the implementation of the Sinhala Only law and the violence against that escalated, and as signs of the failure of non-violent agitation became apparent, several violent groups appeared, one of which was led by Prabhakaran. Ranil Wickremesinghe feels that, even if Prabhakaran is dead, and the LTTE is annihilated, the emergence of new Tamil armed groups could not be avoided. In the new situation, Dayan Jayatilleke goes further. He deals with the new situation Prabhakaran had created, especially, within the last two years. During the non-violent phase of the Tamil struggle, S.J.V. Chelvanayagam , who led, it mobilised the Tamils of the North and East, and built on the existing Sri Lankan Tamil nationalism. Prabhakaran has given Tamil nationalism a completely new dimension.

As Dayan Jayatilleke pointed out, Prabhakaran had appealed to the 80 million Tamils in his last two Mahaveerar Day (Heroes’ Day) speeches. Thus he had taken the problem to the entire Tamil population living in this globe. And the present situation in the Wanni had made them active. Now , they speak only of Tamil people being killed.

Now, take a look at what is happening among the Tamil people in Sri Lanka, the 1.5 million Tamil Diaspora spread over 30 countries, in Tamil Nadu, where about 65 million Tamil live and in Malaysia, Mauritius and South Africa, where a considerable number of Tamils of older immigrant origin live. Tamil nationalism is uniting all these sections.

Within Sri Lanka, the upcountry Tamils voted in the February 14 polls for the UNP, as a reaction to the UPFA propaganda conducted in the villages concentrated on war victories. A study has revealed that, the new sector of opinion creators that is emerging in the Plantation areas- teachers, employed and unemployed educated youths and the youths working in Colombo and other cities- have reacted to the war propaganda and to the reports of Wanni killings.

A teacher with whom I spoke said, “The physical law that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, is also applicable to human behaviour.” It summed up the real situation. Tamil sympathy, if not support, is with the Tamils of Wanni. The New Delhi report about Ranil Wickremesinghe’s interview says: He admitted that there “was some kind of support to the LTTE by the people”. Nadesan, LTTE’s peace secretariat chief, has repeatedly told the Tamil people worldwide, “You are our strength.”

Tamil Diaspora has rallied around the LTTE. Their campaign centres on the slogan: “Save Tamils”: “Stop the Genocide”. On Monday, many Tamils living in Britain, drove their cars with placards bearing that slogan on them. In almost every city in Europe, they are conducting rallies and demonstrations.

In Tamil Nadu, the situation has deteriorated into a law and order problem. The lawyers, who have taken over the lead from the politicians, are battling with the police. They have burnt police stations, forcing the judiciary to close the courts on Monday and Tuesday, fearing a satyagraha campaign. On Monday, the lawyers broke open the Chennai High Court gates and held their fast within the premises.  The Tamil Nadu Bar Association is leading the campaign. At its request, the All India Bar Association met on Saturday and decided to observe Friday as a Black Day all over India, a move to condemn the police attack on the lawyers on February 16. The Congress and the DMK, partners in the central government, are facing internal protests and splits.  Thamilaruvi Maniyan, secretary of the Tamil Nadu Branch of the Congress Party, has resigned his post. A DMK activist, Sivapiragasam burnt himself, protesting against his party’s continued support of the Indian government. The DMK was pushed to hold a human chain demonstration calling for cease-fire in Sri Lanka, to keep its support base.

Tamils in Malaysia, South Africa and Mauritius have become active. They are holding demonstrations calling for cease-fire. Prabhakaran is emerging as the hero of the younger generation. As Dayan Jayatilleke rightly diagnosed, Prabhakaran has succeeded in generating a situation, which Sri Lanka has to deal with. He calls it a ticking time bomb.